How to Stay Healthy in Retirement: Keep Working

Though many people look forward to retirement as an absolute
end to their working days, new research shows that people who transition to
temporary or part-time work after retiring often experience better health.

The finding is especially noteworthy given the fact that
more people may be considering some kind of post-retirement
work during the current economic
downswing, said study co-author Mo Wang of the University of Maryland.

Psychologists looked at data from more than 12,000 people between
the ages of 51 and 61 at the beginning of the study. The participants were
interviewed every two years over a six-year period about their health, finances
and employment or retirement life.

The researchers found that people who worked after retiring —
be it part time work, self-employment or a temporary job — were less likely to
suffer from major health conditions including cancer, high blood pressure, and
cardiovascular disease, compared to retirees who stopped working completely.

"People may believe that stopping working is a good
thing, but their health
situation or mental situation may actually disagree," Wang said.
"In reality work is a very functional thing for us to maintain our health
and psychological wellbeing."

The research can't pin down the cause of this correlation,
but Wang is not surprised by the results.

"If you keep working, that helps to maintain your
lifestyle," he told LiveScience. "That makes your transition to
retirement less bumpy. You still have a daily structure, you do lunch at a
certain time. Working also helps you to maintain certain social contacts and
social support."

In addition to the physical effects
of working, Wang and colleagues also measured a mental-health effect.
People who transitioned to work in a field related to their pre-retirement job
were less likely to be depressed than people who transitioned to work in a new
field, or people who stopped working altogether.

"We can speculate why," Wang said. "If people
take to a new career field they are more likely to face new job demands and new
social environments, and that could be stressful."

Wang and colleagues say their results hold even after they
removed any influence of people's previous health on their post-retirement
outcomes.

"Of course the best predictor of your current health is
your previous health," Wang said. "Compared to previous health, [working]
has a relatively small effect. But when it's your health, any effect is
important."

The study controlled for not only baseline physical and
mental health, but also for age, sex, education level, and financial wealth. The
findings are detailed in the October issue of the Journal of Occupational
Health Psychology.

Clara has a bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics from Wesleyan University, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has written for both Space.com and Live Science.